The Acer Predator Helios 300 is a great performing gaming laptop for the money, let’s find
out how well it performs in 20 different games at all setting levels, and compare it with
some other gaming laptops to see how it stacks up going in to 2020.
I’ve done a similar video to this with the Helios 300 already, but that was back in June
2019 with older games, older BIOS, older Windows, and older drivers. Given Acer’s Helios 300
is such a popular model that still offers great value going into 2020, I thought it
would be useful to provide updated test results including newer game titles, plus this way
I’ll have fresh data for future comparisons. We’ll also compare some games with those
tested previously and see if these updates have changed performance over time.
The configuration I’ve got has an Intel i7-9750H CPU, 80 watt Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti graphics,
16gb of memory in dual channel, and a 15.6” 1080p 144Hz screen. You can find updated pricing
for this configuration and others linked in the description.
The Helios 300 allows us to enable turbo mode with the press of a button, and this sets
the fans to max speed and overclocks the graphics by this much. By default, the Helios 300 comes
undervolted by -0.125v on the CPU. These modifications should give it an edge over the competition
out of the box.
We’ll start out by going through all games at all setting levels, then afterwards we’ll
see how the Helios 300 compares with some other gaming laptops.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested using the game’s built in benchmark tool, and wasn’t
out the last time I tested the Helios 300. High settings was just below a 60 FPS average
while medium took us all the way, but this is a pretty resource intensive game to run.
Battlefield 5 was tested in campaign mode, and the performance was decent and still playable
at ultra settings, where even the 1% low performance was above 60 FPS, however lower settings were
needed to take advantage of the 144Hz screen.
Control was running alright with the high setting preset, I think the game still runs
well even with lower frame rates, but medium was a much better experience, where even the
1% low performance was near 60 FPS, and ahead of even the average that high settings could
offer.
Apex Legends was tested with either all settings at maximum, or all settings on the lowest
possible values, as it doesn’t have predefined setting presets. The 144 FPS frame cap was
being hit at minimum settings, and the performance at max settings was still great.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare was tested in campaign mode, and I’ve also tested it with
the settings either maxed out or at minimum. I thought it was still running well even with
max settings in use, the 1% low was still above 60 FPS, and while minimum settings didn’t
change that much, there was a larger 20 FPS boost to average FPS.
Borderlands 3 was tested using the game’s built in benchmark, and high settings was
needed to maintain a 60 FPS average in this test, though low settings and below was capable
of delivering above 100 FPS.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the built in benchmark, and the results were
quite impressive when compared against other laptops with the same specs. There was even
a nice boost compared to the Helios when I tested it last year, we’ll look at the comparison
graphs soon.
Ghost Recon Breakpoint was also tested with the benchmark tool, and with ultra settings
it was still possible to hit 60 FPS averages, granted the 1% low performance was down substantially
here, but could be improved nicely with lower settings.
Fortnite was tested with the replay feature, and as a less demanding game epic settings
was running well with above 100 FPS, while high settings would be a nice match up for
the 144Hz screen.
Overwatch is another less demanding game and was tested in the practice range. Epic settings
was hitting average FPS above the refresh rate of the screen, and we could even go higher
than this for 1% lows with high settings and below, while low was able to hit the 300 FPS
frame cap.
CS:GO was tested using the Ulletical FPS benchmark, and the results are pretty similar to most
other laptops I’ve tested with these specs, perhaps a slight edge as the CPU is undervolted,
and this is more of a CPU heavy test.
Dota 2 was tested playing in the middle lane, and it also seems to depend more on the CPU
than the graphics. The results were similar to most other i7 gaming laptops I’ve tested
regardless of GPU, and absolutely no issues even at max settings as it doesn’t take
much to run this game.
Rainbow Six Siege was tested with the built in benchmark, and is another title that doesn’t
need too much to run, which is why we’ve almost got 100 FPS for the 1% low even with
the ultra setting preset, while high settings was averaging above the refresh rate of the
screen.
Metro Exodus was tested using the built in benchmark, most parts of the game perform
a fair bit better than this, so don’t take these results as a good indication of what
to expect throughout the entire game, it’s more of a worst case.
The Division 2 was also tested with the built in benchmark, and although it was possible
to average above 60 FPS at ultra settings, the 1% low performance at ultra to medium
was down significantly, though this is something I’ve seen from other laptops too so likely
some issue with the game.
PUBG was tested using the replay feature. The frame rates look pretty decent, almost
100 FPS even with the ultra setting preset, while low settings was capable of surpassing
the refresh rate of the screen with a 1% low that’s still above 100 FPS.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was tested with the built in benchmark, and as a resource
heavy game the frame rates aren’t all that much better compared to many other laptops,
though 60 FPS with very high settings is a decent result, and likely helped by the Helios
being well tuned out of the box.
Far Cry New Dawn was also tested with the games benchmark, again the results were quite
similar to most other laptops with similar specs that I’ve tested.
The Witcher 3 was playing ok with ultra settings, however simply dropping down to high settings
would push the average frame rate up significantly and would offer a better all round experience
while still looking pretty good.
F1 2019 was tested using the game’s benchmark tool, and although max settings had decent
average FPS, the 1% low performance was down substantially, however stepping down just
one level to high increased performance significantly where even 1% low performance was now ahead
of the average FPS of max settings.
Let’s also take a look at how this config of the Acer Helios 300 compares with other
laptops, use these results as a rough guide only as they were tested at different times
with different drivers.
I’ve tested Battlefield 5 with the highest ultra setting preset. I’ve got the new 2020
results highlighted in red, and the results from June 2019 highlighted in green. Interestingly,
we can see that performance was a little worse now, and these results are averages taken
from 3 test runs. It’s hard to say what’s caused the difference, as a number of things
have changed since the original testing, including BIOS, Nvidia drivers, Windows updates and
games updates, though realistically these are still decent results, and the 1% low is
still higher than most other 1660 Ti laptops I’ve tested, likely due to the CPU undervolt.
These are the results from Far Cry 5 with ultra settings in the built in benchmark.
The results are much closer together here, the 1% low performance is slightly behind
with the new results while the average is slightly ahead, granted the results are so
close I’d consider this within margin of error ranges anyway. Although there are no
major differences between the two, the results of both are still noticeably ahead of all
the other 1660 Ti laptops I’ve got data for.
These are the results from Shadow of the Tomb raider with the built in benchmark at highest
settings. This time there was a noticeable performance uplift with the newer results,
which equates to a 4% higher average frame rate, not much but it’s something, and it
puts the Helios 300 back in the lead out of all 1660 Ti laptops I’ve tested for this
game.
So there don’t appear to be major changes even after all this time when looking at a
few different games, but it looks like results will vary by game. Battlefield 5 saw slightly
lower performance 7 months later, Far Cry 5 saw essentially no change, while Shadow
of the Tomb Raider saw an improvement.
In the end the Acer Helios 300 is still offering great performance, especially for its price.
When I originally reviewed it, it was going for $1200 USD, now it’s often found for
under $1100 USD, and it even went as low as $930 USD on sale during Black Friday, which
is quite crazy for the performance on offer. Even going into 2020, it’s still easy to
suggest the Helios 300 for gaming as it’s tuned well out of the box, giving it an edge
in most games when compared to many other gaming laptops with similar specs which typically
cost more, the lower price just makes it better value. You can of course tune many other laptops
similarly yourself for similar performance gains, but for those that just want to buy
something and not worry about the details, it’s still a good pick.
With Ryzen 4000, Intel 10th gen, and new Nvidia graphics just around the corner though, it’s
tough to say whether you should buy today. It’s still going to offer a great experience
for years to come, so if you need something now then go for it. I doubt we’ll see that
big of a boost with the new 10th gen Intel CPUs as they’re still 14nm based, so there
will probably just be a small clock speed boost. When new Nvidia graphics come, it’s
likely we’ll see some sort of Super variation to fill in the gaps that exist rather than
an entirely new generation, so again I don’t expect the performance the 1660 Ti offers
to suddenly suck. The only real unknown is the Ryzen 4000 CPU launch, however Acer told
me at CES 2020 recently that they’re not refreshing their laptops with Ryzen at this
time, and it still remains to be seen how that will compete against the Intel options
in gaming.
In the end it comes down to whether or not you want to wait a few more months to see
what happens, or if you need a great gaming laptop for the money today then the Helios
300 is still a good choice.
Let me know what you thought of the gaming performance from the Acer Helios 300 down
in the comments, do you think it’s still worth it going into 2020? And if you’re
new to the channel get subscribed for future tech videos like this one.